“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth– the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! (Amos 4:6-13)

Prepare To Meet Your God

The prophet Amos was a tough no-nonsense preacher from a small town in Judah named Tekoa. His message to Israel was a fierce defense of the sovereignty of Jehovah and a blistering rebuke to the rebellious lives of God’s people. He began his message with the Lord roaring from Zion. He never let up. The message of Amos is a clear demonstration of the severity of God upon those who refuse to obey Him. And there were plenty of opportunities to change.

The Lord loved Israel as the apple of His eye. When they began to follow after the gods of Baal, Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Molech (to name a few) He brought judgment upon them with famine and drought but to no avail. Their crops died in the fields with blight and mildew. The plagues of Egypt descended upon the people and sons were slain with the sword and the people continued in their idolatrous worship. Stench filled the land with the rotting corpse of man and animal yet the people did not return. The Lord destroyed the people as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and they still refused to return to Him. Times up. Judgment day is here.

Israel had seen the hand of God and felt His punishment in a most severe manner. The incredible thing is that with all of this being brought down upon them they stubbornly refused to do His will. God’s righteousness is found in the mercy given by Him to the people seeking their return. He did this because of His name. The Lord is longsuffering and patient. His kindness is beyond understanding. But there comes a day when His name must be exalted according to His grace. The grace of God saves and the grace of God condemns. With all His works being done among the people they continued in their denial of His love. His grace would now be found in their destruction.

Noah was saved by grace and the world was condemned by grace. The message of salvation was also a message of doom. Noah believed and obeyed the grace of God in preparing the ark for the saving of his household. The rest of the world did not believe and refused to obey the grace of God and were destroyed. Amos shows the grace of God in the saving power of how often the Lord punished the people seeking to bring them back but they refused. Now the day of judgment had come and they would suffer for disobedience to God’s grace.

The message of Amos still rings clear today. Our God has sent His Son into the world to show the light of salvation. He even let man kill His Son on a cross. The mind of God is revealed to man through the pages of Holy writ. Most people today live with no interest in either the death of Jesus Christ or the message of the Bible. There will come a day when the name of the Lord must be exalted and man will be reminded of how he was shown the grace of God in so many ways. Sadly the majority of people will be cast into hell for ignoring the clear message of salvation in Jesus Christ. We need to listen to Amos. It is a great story.